Daily Archives: 02/02/2017

It is the mission of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans. We fulfill that mission by providing for effective health and human services and fostering advances in medicine, public health, and social services.

Does the description of HHS really fit match or give you a positive feeling that he will uphold the mission ?

That’s what anyone who cares about health coverage in America is saying about Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Trump has nominated Rep. Tom Price (R-GA)—who has long led the charge to repeal the Affordable Care Act—to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Rep. Price really hates the ACA. He supported shutting down the government over the ACA; referred to it as tyrannybefore it even became a law; and said it undermined “freedom and liberty” and would turn doctors into slaves. No confirmation yet on whether or not anyone has told him that repealing the law would cause more than 22 million people to lose health coverage.

What sets dr Price apart from many of his fellow anti-ACA House Republicans is he has actually put forward a replacement plan. But his replacement plan wouldn’t come close to providing comparable coverage. First, Rep. Price has said guaranteeing access to coverage for people with pre-existing conditions is “a terrible idea.” He also supports privatizing Medicare with vouchers that are capped, regardless of price of the plan. That would transfer costs to seniors and come as a shock to Trump supporters who listened when he promised he wouldn’t cut their Medicare benefits. Rep. Price also wants to slash Medicaid funding, which would shift costs to states and lead to millions of beneficiaries losing coverage.

dr Price’s ACA “replacement” would increase costs for older, sicker, and low-income Americans. And the wealthy would get a tax shelter. Read seven reasons Price is unfit to be Secretary of HHS here.

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January is poised to be a volatile month that’s jam-packed with Senate committee hearings to approve President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks. Here is a look at the nominees and their upcoming hearing schedules.

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President-Elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will nominate the Michigan philanthropist and prominent Republican donor Betsy DeVos to be U.S. Education Secretary. The announcement signals that big changes could be on the way for schools and students around the country. Here are five things to know:

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DeVos has been a vocal supporter of school choice, which is something Trump backed on the campaign trail. DeVos, who heads up the pro-charter and pro-school-voucher nonprofit American Federation for Children, has said parents should have the ability to choose the best schools for their children, whether they are traditional public schools, charters, or private schools. Trump has proposed creating a $20 billion federal voucher program for families to use to send their kids to the school of their choice. But, as Education Week noted recently, making that program a reality could be difficult. It’s unclear exactly where the funding would come from, and even if Congress did manage to pass such a proposal, some states currently prohibit funds from going to schools with religious affiliations, which could complicate how those funds are used.

2. Critics of the Common Core standards may have reason to worry.

While Trump repeatedly assailed the set of standards used in most states across the country, DeVos has been less clear about her stance on them. She also served on the board of the former Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, which supported the controversial standards. And Trump’s transition team reportedly discussed the idea of “higher national standards” with DeVos. Trump’s campaign pledge to repeal the standards isn’t actually realistic because they are not a federal mandate. It’s possible that DeVos and the administration might support similar standards while avoiding the politically toxic Common Core nomenclature.

3. Expect deregulation to be a priority.

According to Chalkbeat, DeVos’s family poured $1.45 million into an effort to prevent Michigan from adding oversight for charter schools. That effort ultimately failed. DeVos and her husband have been supporters of charter schools for decades and longtime opponents of regulation. And according to Chalkbeat, around 80 percent of the state’s charter schools are run by private companies. The lack of oversight has prompted concern from the Obama administration that some bad charters were being allowed to operate without improving or being forced to close. Civil-rights groups like the NAACP have also expressed concern that low-income children and children of color suffer when oversight is scaled back.

4. She’s politically active, but she doesn’t have a lot of political experience.

DeVos, 58, is married to Dick DeVos, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the governorship in Michigan. He is the former president of Amway, which his father co-founded, and of the Orlando Magic NBA team. Her brother, Erik Prince, founded Blackwater, the controversial security firm. The family has given to a number of conservative and Christian organizations. While Betsy DeVos has served as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, much of her work has been at the state level, and she will now have to, as Chalkbeat wrote, “operate within a complicated web of interests and priorities, including with education officials in states that did not support Trump.” Her ability to navigate Washington is largely untested.

5. The reaction to her nomination is mixed.

DeVos’s selection as education secretary will please Republicans like Senator Lamar Alexander, who heads up the Senate’s education committee.

But teachers’ unions see her support of charter schools and vouchers as an affront to public education, something Randi Weingarten, the head of one of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions, quickly made clear.

.@randiweingarten calls DeVos the “most ideological, anti-public education nominee” since the start of the Ed Dpt.

1848 – The first shipload of Chinese emigrants arrived in San Francisco, CA.

1863 – Samuel Langhorne Clemens used a pseudonym for the first time. He is better remembered by the pseudonym which is Mark Twain.

1870 – The “Cardiff Giant” was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum. The discovery in Cardiff, NY, was alleged to be the petrified remains of a human.

1876 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (known as the National League) was formed in New York. The teams included were the Chicago White Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Mutual of New York, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Louisville Grays.

1878 – Greece declared war on Turkey.

1880 – The S.S. Strathleven arrived in London with the first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia.

1962 – The 8th and 9th planets aligned for the first time in 400 years.

1967 – The American Basketball Association was formed by representatives of the NBA.

1971 – Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda after a coup that ousted President Milton Obote.

1980 – The situation known as “Abscam” began when reports surfaced that the FBI had conducted a sting operation that targeted members of the U.S. Congress. A phony Arab businessmen were used in the operation.

1989 – The final Russian armored column left Kabul, Afghanistan, after nine years of military occupation.

1990 – South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.

1999 – 19 people were killed at Luanda international airport when a cargo plane crashed just after takeoff.

1999 – Hugo Chávez Frías took office. He had been elected president of Venezuela in December 1998.

2004 – It was reported that a white powder had been found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) later confirmed that the powder was the poison ricin.

Thanks to the women in this room and people all across the country, we worked really hard — and it’s now been more than three years since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act and I signed it into law. It’s been nearly a year since the Supreme Court upheld the law under the Constitution. And, by the way, six months ago, the American people went to the polls and decided to keep going in this direction. So the law is here to stay.

I’ll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again by holding the responsible parties accountable, by putting in place new checks and new safeguards, and going forward, by making sure that the law is applied as it should be — in a fair and impartial way.

They exemplified the very idea of citizenship — that with our God-given rights come responsibilities and obligations to ourselves and to others. They embodied that idea. That’s the way they died. That’s how we must remember them. And that’s how we must live.